i grew up in the south. to me, all white people were rich. [laughter] that is an idea i still have today sometimes. i am finding out it is not need to have the women in the families able to make as much as being men make. if your post them equal rights amendment, razor hand. you might want to leave. we wish you well. the young woman sitting beside him, we know what is going to happen tonight. [laughter] thaty don't you pick up on and jump right into the opposition. and how that was framed at a specific time and that did take hold and here we are today. oppositionthat the was very adamant about the positive nature of what they

thought as a patriarchal umbrella and that women and children were protected by this patriarchy. it is coming at a time in the 1960's and 1970's when we don't recognition and acknowledgment about the rest of violence. we don't have a lot of acknowledgment of criminal behavior that are happening in the home. we don't have an understanding of sexual assault. there's a lot of secrets still that are held within family homes. e.r.a.,pposition to the the household as a perfect ways. -- place. as a place that is a positive

haven. the opposition uses the word haven a lot to describe the home. and then they painted the pro-e.r.a. people as anti-people so they said that in favor of the equal rights amendment were anti-family. were anti-children. anti-home. anti-marriage. rhetoric ofused the this negativity that was perceived in the larger general public and that general rhetoric that was negative was attached to a particular group of people. feministstype of the in the 1960's was someone who --

and i'm smiling because you continue to hear this on the daily news cycle, someone who is shrill. someone who is bold. someone who is -- does not take no for an answer. men.ne who doesn't like someone who is best, someone who is that. shoplylike phyllis really push the negative message and if i could get to her words again, i think it is another good quote from her, she said that like nobody else can, she 1922, it isn in time to set the record straight, the claim that american women are downtrodden is unfairly treated as the fraud of the century. the truth is that american women

never had it so good. why should we lower ourselves to equal rights when we are to have the status of special privilege? and she argues that based on a judeo-christian heritage. ,hey found that heterosexuality that i talked about at the beginning of the hour. , uses christian tradition a lot and come up with surfers here, -- her friends here, a phrase christian age of chivalry. she is masterful at rhetoric. , this is on at little bit interesting to read

my head around, she says that judeo-christian civilization has developed a law and custom that since women must there the physical consequences of the sex act, men must be required to bear the other consequences in other ways. what she's arguing is that because women are the bearer of children, they go through childbirth and the hardship of that, that men know it to their wives. on theit is based judeo-christian understanding of marriage. based on a world where birth a very is still uncomfortable subject for people. aboutso was very adamant feminism and the abortion movement.

used the -- antiabortion movement to her advantage and talked about women involved with the e.r.a. as baby killers. , i would call bold and strident. her use of language, she does in a very calm tone. the way she writes is also very calm. people do not see her as angry, they saw her as illustrating the perfect wife. her that you are a -- the e.r.a.. >> alice paul wrote the original. worked on in her entire life. passed away in 1977.

can you give us any thoughts on alice and what she was thinking as far as the opposition to the equal rights movement -- pardon me, equal rights amendment of the time the 60's and 70's had around -- rolled around? >> economic ago we talked about context and that this amendment that she had helped to write and offered in the early 20's is very different from what she intended to happen and very different than what indeed happened by the 60's and 70's. one of the things that is there interesting, i just got done by the a pamphlet national woman's party, he can tell alice paul was a heavy influence where she talks about all the social fears. the opposition will play on the social fears. it is not that you never thought about it, but she got been that never would have come up in the 20's that we are now talking about, that is a powerful way to

campaign. her opinion in the 20's was that , and at the end of her life also, if you got the federal amendment for equality, the social things would work themselves out. of the e.r.a. and anti-e.r.a., we have all of the social fears because -- become predominant above the e.r.a.. also, this is interesting because here she is pro-e.r.a., but is not able to do with the opposition. she says that young women are going to take up the mantle, welcome women. behind closed doors, she wants to separate her party from the women's liberation movement because she feels that maybe they are little too radical or the have some initiatives that they want to pursue and that

would all caps hiding to the equal rights amendment as well. you doingtion is are that so she was to separate her amendment. i think this is a woman who is in her 80's and 90's, and she is, we can -- consider heretical but not so radical and her thought of coming up to a head with these new women who work radical according to her. and talking about these social issues to which i think she wanted to disassociate her and her amendment from, anyway. -- and a way. -- in a way. i'm not sure she knew how to feel as all the issues are coming up. she has arguments for each of the issues, but i don't know what is going on for her personally. because fascinating alice paul fuller and -- formed the national women's party and they were the young generation. these were the rabble-rousers. people that were radical

themselves. suffrage parties that were really thinking now that these people are picketing the white house. this is atrocious. they should not do this. alice and her contemporaries that were really be young people that were just radical. i really like to think about alice's time and everything that she had done politically and that eventually flipped and alice and the rest of the national women's party still want to the belmont house, they were the older generation. looking at the younger generation and same there too radical. it is a fascinating look but i think one that you only get when you have something like the equal rights amendment that has such a long life span. we can trace this from generation to generation. the face that same thing when we talk about civil rights as well. many of the young people talk about the old people.

they're not talking about me of course. [laughter] i'm chronologically advanced, but i'm not old. [laughter] that people often forget when dr. martin luther king and others were working in the civil rights movement, there were young people, too.but as you go along , you change what is most urgently important to your and in the case o my group, it is a matter of preserving what someone else struggled to gain, we are trying to keep that while many young people are try to get new rights that we never thought were possible. >> it is fascinating. you are both history professors. maybe we could talk about what the students today think about the equal rights amendment and i know one of the biggest misconceptions when people walk into the museum is that they are generally shocked that, because they think that equal rights amended is indeed law and we are

all living safely under the equal rights amendment -- [laughter] and that is indeed not the case. thing, a are shocked by the fact that this is written in the 1920's, not the 1960's or 70's. the 50's and 70's to them was ancient times. [laughter] earlier aboutg the age of the students that are coming into undergrad classes. born in 1998. [laughter] it is 1998 this year. i remember the moment, i started teaching in the 80's and when i first started, the e.r.a. did not die until 82's, students i had, coming into classes, they knew the e.r.a.. they could talk about the e.r.a..

that, by theafter early 1990's, you could talk about the e.r.a. and they aought you were talking about laundry detergent. there was a command like, uhhh. oh my gosh. it was not in memory. asething had to teach history, not as current events and not as a part of collective memory. i think that they don't know much about it now. in the like to say that last few years, students have much more, come into my classrooms as feminists and that , there shocked to learn anybody who calls himself a feminist with someone they could relate to it all think was even a halfway person -- decent human being. now young women are coming into the classroom identifying as

feminists before they get there. it is a huge change. a lot of energy around feminism and women's issues. not e.r.a. particularly. i would not say the e.r.a. is the primary issue for women. i think there are plenty of other issues that are probably more important to women immediately banned e.r.a.. things like raising the minimum wage and paid parental leave and effective buddies rights -- protecting voting rights. with a remarkable -- a remarkable moment in the late 80's when suddenly e.r.a. just meant absolutely nothing. it was such a long-ago past. what happens today, many of the women's organizations pay more attention to young women and we do try to teach them about the things that impacted their lives and how they got to be where they are today. now feminist majority, my

have womenn, i'll who are interns, who do real things, not just piling. they do research, write articles, read so they have a better opportunity to know these issues. nationalin the archives, filing is important. [laughter] i would agree with that there is a change. you mentioned young women and i will add to that, young men as well. just people in college classes now, it is expensive to go to college, it is more expensive now than it was.

if they are following, they are really investing in your education and you want to be part of the solution for the most part. we see that a lot. i'm at illinois state and we see that the lot on our college campus. campus a very diverse and we have a lot of students who are very engaged in a wide range of activism. bey tend not to just inflamed, our feminist organization, but also in pride, young republicans, that is an interesting combination. people who are in pride and he and republicans. i think that is exciting. they are not pigeonholing themselves like we used to do. and i'm standing up

very proud to be doing what i do and working with students. having said that they are credible united to how the world works. -- incredibly naive to how the world works. me of the things that makes very comfortable about that is i don't think it is their fault. i think we are not teaching them at the middle school and high school level history the way .hat we used to and i can say that with authority because we have a .istory education program we train the most teachers in the country and it is very to repair somes

of the damage of the parents that they are bringing -- ignorance that there bring to us. talking a historical context now is asked my students, how far did you get in u.s. history? maybe they know about world war ii. and you know what they know about world war ii, but kind of know what the holocaust is. they never heard of japanese internment. what we are teaching in our high and middle schools is not appropriate. them tost not training really deal with the world and they can vote. hermie it is critical -- for me

it is critical because i want them to understand how to vote and make those decisions. >> i'm glad you mentioned high school and young men. young men play an important part in how women are treated throughout the country and around the world. we welcome the help of young men and i'm pleased that we go about campuses and high schools, we get some young men to take the lead in being supportive of the equal rights amendment. i'm proud of them and i think we need to encourage the young men. after all, many of them have mothers, sisters and someday they will have daughters. equality ofant opportunity for their daughters. gender studies course at my local college and i started in 2009 in every year i've had more and more young men joined the course and enjoy the course. i wanted to point out quickly is, you maymedia

love it or hate it, but i think for our students, it is one of the things that really connect them and make them feel like part of a community and i think that is what helps them to learn about the issues. they may not study the issues, but they are connected to them. , itink that helps in a way can hinder, like my student say, , i'mw about the issues impressed. they did not learn in school and they don't watch the news. but they can pick up information quickly. we're tied to explore ways that we can use that to spread the message of equal rights amendment and other legislation that would affect specifically women. >> we just have a couple minutes left until he will turn it over to audience questions. let me ask one closing question of the panelists, why do you think that some or many of the feminist activist today might

not make the e.r.a. the top priority? maybe just give two or three sentences about why you think they really don't. >> i will start. i think one of the reasons is that there are so many issues out there that they have to be concerned about. in our community, for example, we face a lot of challenges especially over the past year when we have seen young black women being stopped for routine traffic stops and wind up dead in custody. she is not the only one. we have had several others that we have had to think about and we have not always heard the outcry from the larger community about that issue. we looked at a young girl who slammedriend was being across the room and she was criminally charged just for speaking up against her friend and in texas when a police officer with the in woman in a

baby in suit and get a body slam with her. those are all things in our the vitamin c, that we have to think about that we don't always hear the outcry from the larger community. we have to think about that in e issue.ht issue -- wag you see us onto gallants all of the places. my friend laughed at me because i used to keep picket signs in the back of my car. if i say cause i believe in, i will walk up there and ask what they are picketing for and then i go to the car and get my sign. [laughter] we all had to be activist on each other's behalf. we have see other people's issues as the same kind of issues we have. they be not the same subject at the point is between get more people to support our issues when we are supporting their issues. they are all human issues and if we want to be the human rights, we have to speak up for everybody.

must be treated and thought of as human beings. that is where i never hesitate. i've slept in the park and the snow with the latinos, the native americans, i've gone all over london and places where people with a problem. i see everyone one of those issues as somehow connected to me and i want to be there to help make the difference that i can make. don't always have the money to give money for causes but where i can, i do. i would like to encourage people to know that there is always something you can do to make a difference in the life of somebody else. it may be small but it makes a difference. >> i want to hear from the rest of the panelists and i want to let everyone other microphones on the other side if you have questions or the panelist. i think that there are a lot of issues that come i said this thater, a lot of issues

are more important to more women immediately and able rights amendment would be. raising the minimum wage is crucial to wage earning women. i think that paid parental leave is crucial. voting rights is crucial. crucial to women and families. thosemediately pay off of is more obvious than the rights amendment. which does not seem in any immediate sense to be urgent. >> definitely. >> i would agree with both my colleagues and i also would say that, to add to that, the military-industrial complex in which we live and the immigration issues that we are either dealing with or ignoring us on aes that touch global basis. in theomething that

1970's, was sort of ignored. theof the things that anti-ura people really emphasize , if we had an e.r.a., women would have tested the military. we have passed that. women to participate in armed almost, almost not exactly equal but somewhat of an equal manner but i think we are ptsd inwith things like ways we have to deal with those that peopleays ignore them. we had to deal with health care, we have to deal with medical attention in our infrastructure is failing. a negative.

-- so negative. there is so much going on and there are so many needs right now. i'm not sure that the equal rights amendment is forefront in people's minds. girlsork with 40 teenage through the advisory council and i can play that everyone of those girls has no idea what the e.r.a. is and that it never passed. for them, it is a brand-new concept, but as students they learned. they are excited and charged. if you and you activists for the e.r.a., yet to tell them about it. [laughter] not chosen a parents. there does not cut in school. they get very little international relations as well. when they learn about it, they are charged and passionate and i think that is perhaps the next message. they have not expressed a lot of

discrimination yet. that is another -- the other half of the coin. i don't want them to. [laughter] i want them to not have to experience it. for them it is just a matter of an educational expense. >> thank you all. -- experience. >> thank you all. we have people ready for questions. >> when we discuss women suffrage, we usually discussed the united states and we were a part of the weight at that time, we have not discussed how other countries deal with the e.r.a. and i'm not sure that is part of your purview, could it be discussed? how does the rest of the world think of equal rights? >> one of the things i think you can do is begin by looking at where do we invade next. ? michael moore's movie.

there are some countries that are ahead of us. i'm not the other side where they are not, some of us have helped legally to write laws for other nations. we work with women in many ways. we don't always assume we are ahead of everybody else in the world. >> there a lot of countries ahead of us. estimates always a rear, i'm going to is to sweden. legislation and half of their government has the women and they do that in the 70's. now they are seeing the effects of that. and the fruits of our labor. they have child care, health care, all of these great things that i think people like alice paul were originally fighting for. we are also one of six nation that has not passed [indiscernible] we stand out in a very strange way because we have not passed the convention on the

elimination of discrimination of women which one to six other nations have. of six.ne >> several of the other nations have had women presidents and we have not. not yet. of the interesting things of the museum, we work closely with the state department and other organizations that bring international groups to the museum and what we do is we bring them through, we tell them the story, give them a tour and we often said after for a few minutes and let them ask, you have american women sitting here , ask us questions. butight not be the experts we would certainly tell you from a personal level what we think. some the questions we get from the art absolutely astounding. we had women from 17 or 18 different countries come through in the last couple months and women who come from muslim countries are often the most

unyielding for us. they will say, you don't have an equal rights amendment. why are you running a museum? you should be picketing. we will say, thank you. that weucky in america have the opportunity to preserve the story to make sure that our students amounts of income coming to. get the back on information and understand it. we also lucky to have lots of other women who are activists and our standing -- actively working on that. not necessarily the answer they want to hear, but it is the answer of what we do. over here now. i'm a little older. i'm glad to see young faces in the audience. first became the now president in northern virginia,

my phone number, my home phone number was put into the fund directory,- phone talk about an ancient idea, in that first year i ended up with over 500 calls to my number. by battered women and freight -- raped women. i had guys with shotguns on my front porch willing to shoot me so they could trade for the violence on their women -- perpetrate further violence on their women. what they were portraying the home as a haven, i was dealing otherleeding bodies and women. when this happened, the only place you could shelter a woman was a place in alexandria and they would not take children in. women wouldviolated

leave the children behind? watchingtarted course because we found -- court watching because we can't judges in the southern states, ira one woman coming in who is deaf as a result of the violence and being beaten around the head and the judge with a sitting judge said to her, did you deserve it? the violence continued. the home still is not a haven. i think we have to think about the core rights of survival. thrive?ve the right to how do we come to a place where we face no violence and no discrimination? as a quaker, i tend to believe that alice paul was not often terms of her ultimate goal.

generation to generation we have different tactics and motivations. i think that desire to be equal, to have the glass feeling vanished, i think women all along the way have seen that as something they wanted. at least as a remark quicker quaker -- read my sources i believe that is true. i think that make a difference. >> i think i go to a dr. williams was saying about the fact that we all must be diligent. we must be diligent with our family and friends and we must find ways to make our communities better. have vice presidential joe biden to thank ence against women act. that is a good start. we need to be more vigilant. if you look at five women, at least somebody in the group has had domestic violence whether it

is a son or daughter or spouse. we need to pay more attention to this issue. i meet women all the time who you would never think just from looking at them that they were abused. >> one of the great paradoxes of the equal rights amendment movement is at a time when the failingas rescinded and was the time when women recognizing that personal is political it were thely starting to take on issues in the own home and were not waiting for governmental intervention but were doing it yourself. history has shown that across the states, domestic violence shelters were being established

in many different ways in the 1970's and the 1980's. they did not start at that time but they did expand. the sources will show that in the colonial era, there were women who were taking another and i think the feminist movement of the 1960's and to0's really did a service women were not being heard in a public setting. i think that is important. >> over here. >> the equal rights amendment itself, i came in a couple minutes late, i don't know anybody actually said it out loud, but this is a couple sentences, there shall be equal rights. not,ld say that there are

not all the issues you have raised as prominent and important issues to deal with now could be dealt with under the equal rights amendment, but ifa lawyer, i would say that we had an equal rights amendment, it would be a powerful legal tool to deal with at least some of the issues raised for example, fair pay. why do we push minimum wage? in fact, many more women than men are at that level. many issues in the workplace, talking about protective havelation that we could bathroom breaks, that is still an issue today. pregnant women do not get bathroom breaks in many jobs and crazy hours. if there were any poor rights amendment, i think it would be a an equaltool -- were

rights amended, i think it would be a powerful told. -- tool. you mentioned the military. the 80's andn from 70's, in addition to the home as , haven and that major theme two of the issues i recall that were mentioned again and again were women would have to be drafted and women would have to be in combat. and the third thing is a robot use the same bathroom. [laughter] in my house that is true. these issues do not go away. fact, more comments on that, it does seem to me that a push forre really the e.r.a. and it was clear what it might be used to correct, it

really could be seen as an important tool for women and for men. >> i think alice paul, she wrote so many drafts of the e.r.a., the final one that she ended up -- she changes in 1943, the one we know today. she intentionally kept the bank with the idea that it could be used in a lot of different angles. she wanted strict scrutiny in the court system and that was her goal and keeping it vague was her goal as well. >> over here. paul and phyllis justly, i don't know few know, phyllis made a speech or years ago in berkeley.

she invited to talk about feminism and conservatism. she finished her speech, walked around the podium and fell off the stage and broke her hip. i always say that alice paul was there and pushed her. [laughter] the second thing, we are working on the e.r.a. if you don't know in virginia. we passed it five times in the senate. we can get up to the house. being worked on illinois, nevada, florida north carolina and we are pushing but we need in five states that the rescinded from the supreme court said it is not possible, no apparatus in the constitution to let you do that. you have to start all over again. my question is, i noticed in the picture, you had a lot of people in their pictures like alice cowan who worked on this and you have the lady that just spoke was one of the original marchers in virginia from richmond, from

d.c. to return and she was one of your illinois pastors, why are we not having a program with people telling stories about the past? ago, you had people talking about the e.r.a. and one professor said, it is actually dead. it was amazing to me. we need to have a program to tell the stories in order to get these people to write their books and talk about them. recently, jessica knew worth wrote a book that means equal means equal. in a movie by the same name. they will be in town next thursday night, i believe at the u.s. capitol. you can go online to the e.r.a. coalition and find out more details about that. some of us go around the country, i have been to wake

forest and others, we do tell the stories that you think. not enough yet, but we are working on it and we certainly will have a meeting on tuesday but the coalition that will bring that up. stories are powerful when you can hear from someone there. >> you all are at universities. in virginia, we have a history project. we have been going to making a long list of women who worked on the e.r.a. who are important and we have been interviewing them and we give our kids to the smithsonian. you need to be doing that too with your graduate students and getting them out there, these women are dying before we can get to them. >> we are doing that at illinois state. in states happening legislation in illinois. it is at a standstill. if you're hoping for the e.r.a. , i don't know.

alice, work some magic. nothing is happening in the state of illinois. >i think that a lot of universities have very excellent oral history programs and those of us who work with graduate students and do have masters programs, we really push oral history. we push particularly, i will talk about my institution, we do a lot of -- with local history and we have a director of winter -- women gender studies who was active in the e.r.a. and went toe to toe with phyllis in springfield. we have her stories and collections. one of the things that is really important about public history and oral history especially is that you get the smaller stories

and we've the smaller stories and you get the national picture. you thately agree with we need the stories and i think they are happening. they really are. hello, as you mentioned briefly before, about the draft, something i have been interested in nothing as relevant now. maybe if you could talk more about that and where that fits in, especially today. something i have not encountered in my research on feminist movements today. >> alice paul and the national women's party stands on the draft in the 70's, women organizations have gotten together to talk about it and i think the consensus at that point was that women should be eligible for the draft and that legally both men and women could

be called for the draft at any point. felt that with the volunteer army which was started in the 70's that there would not be a need for the draft anymore. she's kind of right right now. knock on wood. and she said, by the way, women have always been in the army. they have always been there. recognizedessarily for it. not sure how she would feel about what is going on today. at the corbett, she would say that women should be drafted, not that she should want them but legally she would see that that if you want. quality, this is one of the products of the quality as well. maybe someone here knows what

is going on with this. maybe some authorization bill, there. would require that 18-year-olds registered to vote -- register. to prevent it. do you encounter this when you are out speaking. the audience as to which i speak are often already ready. i don't find any position at all. they are just hungry for more information so they can claim the equal rights amendment to their friends and family. i had one woman in north carolina recently he raised a question about her husband objecting to her coming out to the meeting we were having and she wanted to know what the he was anas to that

older man. in his 80's and strongly objected and she asked us what she thought she could do and i suggested getting a divorce. [laughter] she said afterwards, picking up doing that just that. to talk about the draft a little bit, i think one of the threadthat is a common that weaves through from the 1920's to the present is that there are a lot of men and women who are involved in this activism. women strike for peace, so many different organizations that are engaged in the activism of peace

. global peace, local peace. i think that the draft is something that would be very for both men and women and transgender people. , i don'tll people who know we would be able to get a ,raft through in this climate but i don't know that they thought they would get a draft for before. , as youthat it is mentioned social media, i think there are so many different immediate ways to find out about activism that i don't know that a draft would fly. i really don't. maybe i'm an optimist. i'm a peace activist. that is my bias. i don't believe in the draft.

cannot add to alice paul that she believed that if more women were involved in government, that they can help the peace movement. i think it is an interesting point. mind staying't around for a bit, i would love to get your contact information in their organization that could -- i could put you in touch with. >> i'm the newly indoctrinated virginia vice president, i would like to share, when i saw the e.r.a. bracelet, i'm wearing one , i love the e.r.a. so much. i was brought under the wings of the current virginia president to talk about the e.r.a. is i thought it was large and detergent. -- logic yesterday. i had no idea what it was. i thought i was smart. what is the direct impact for me

as a woman? as a single mom raising kids. as a woman of color having children of color. all of these things, these sectional pieces. as we approach, i will jump to the presidential campaign. as i was learning about the e.r.a. as a medicating about the topic, it is a broad statement. it has so much deeper meaning than those few sentences that we have. watching the presidential election and saying some of the, some of the challenges that have without screaming to the tv is seen some of the young women talk about the candidate they were supported and that they would not vote for a woman because she is a woman. it, i understand what they're trying to say, that gender should not be an issue. but at the same idea, i think they're cutting up the issue of we aree e.r.a. is two,

women. we may not be capable of serving or breaking the glass ceiling or being represented in our community are seen as leaders. what would you say to young women who make the statement that, i'm not voting for a woman or standing with women or supporting women just because of the gender. ? it is not intended for discrimination or topic, it leans towards not discouraging and that is where the blurry line of the conversation gets mixed up. >> two sides of the coin. say, you should not vote for the candidate because they are women. should but because of the qualifications. however, you have to go to the, he did more women at the table in order to address issues that do affect women.

i think it is a double-sided coin. i think that it will be great when we get to a point where we are choosing our candidates for the qualifications and not the gender. hope we can elect more women into legislative positions for the sake of helping women and addressing issues that are going to affect women and men as well. start the conversation you are putting gender studies in high school. >> i think we need to vote for people whose policies we support whether they are men or women. if phyllis was running for president, she would not say that we should all vote for phyllis because she is a woman, because she does not support policies we think would be best for women. most women. i am all with those young women

who say we will not vote for somebody just because she is a woman. if the public position for the same, and a choice between a man and a woman, i would say about of action and go for the woman. we need more progressive, feminist women in positions of power. i agree that policy comes first. and that if you think the policies are going to help more women, you vote for that candidate. also say that 44 times we selected a man for president, isn't it time we show our daughters that they are smart, wonderful, and they can do things? and we can have a woman. don't see that the woman is very smart. is a very smart woman is for president. i would have not -- no problem

because she's a woman and she is smart and wonderful and will do a great job and i know that she supports policies i support. i am in better equipped daughters about that and -- emphatic with my daughters and sons about that. we have had women around the world who have shown how smart they are in how good they are for the country. .t is time for us to do that if you did not believe that women could do anything, but he notinued and so on to say woman is smart enough, i think something is wrong with the picture. >> absolutely. we have two minutes left. >> just a clarification, started talking about the draft, what happened in the senate today was but we don't have a draft young men still have to sign up when they are 18. what passed in the senate today was that young women when they

turn 18 would also have to sign appeared in alternative would be to not have anybody sign up. and it's not like some people might prefer that. at any rate, i don't know what it's like to happen in the house but the idea was that if men sign up, young women should sign up also. we will see where that goes. >> think you. -- thank you. we had just enough time for any last comments. i would like to say that i'm delighted to see so many people here. i wondered if anybody would come out. [laughter] it is great. thank you so much for coming. womenould say to minority that we need to support people -- equal rights amendment and

justice and civil rights movement of how they help women of all races, so can the equal rights amendment helped not only women but men too. >> in terms of education, i would ask all of us to encourage to expandl systems the educational offerings at the middle school and high school levels. you suggested high school, i think we need to go younger than that. i really think we need to go into the middle school. i tried to do that at the school and they said, we don't have time, we have to do science and math. we've been focusing on stem for so long, that is wonderful, but humanitiesrefocus on and that is my pitch. also, wentioned before

need to be having these conversations. it has been such a taboo subject. we don't talk about anything related to women rights in the not talking about one half of the entire country because we are so afraid that something it will bring up the issue of abortion. so controversial. we need to have this can this discussion. why do we support equal rights amendment and widely against it. had a conversation with your friends. have conversations with the students and children and parents and let's not shy away from this topic. it is a good one. we obviously need to have more conversations. help lead this is the beginning of a very good conversation and maybe we will be invited back and keep talking another day. [applause]

>> starting monday, august 1, the contenders. putsn 14 part series which the 2016 campaign into historical perspective. reaching across time, the contenders presents key figures have run for president and lost but changed medical history. each night we feature a different candidate. beginning with henry clay and ending with ross perot. 1 8 p.m. eastern time, august through the 14th. only on c-span3. >> this week on the presidency, historians talk about the

process of writing a presidential biography. here is a preview. i think that you do a biography by -- because you have new information and feel that you can really do a fresh part. i have this epiphany when i was working on hamilton that he became momentary during the revolutionary war, hamilton was washington's aid had a feud with washington in hamilton realized that he had to justify the decision to quit washington staff. justify the decision to his father-in-law he was a very close friend of washington. he said dr. mark wrote a letter to his father-in-law that said, the great man and i have come to an open rupture. shall repent of his ill humor. he shout for once repent of his ill humor, cap reverberating in my mind. i had this image of a saintly

george washington and suddenly hamilton is due in the sense of volatile powder cake boss. he had been working with washington every day for several years and so i thought to myself, washington seemingly the most familiar president in our history, he was the most unfamiliar in some way. that was my opening wedge. pride open the whole world into the motions which were intense and volatile. cnet this man of marble and he was not. watch the entire program on sunday at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern here on american history tv on c-span3.

a, the most and author joshua kindle discusses his book first dad. parenting and politics from george washington to per barack obama. >> looking at fathering is try to capture the complexity of human beings and fathering is a way into character and we tend to think that this is a bad guy or a good guy, but to see that a lot of these men who have been presidents had different parts. there are compartmentalized and some of them to be very laudable and do amazing things and some could be really disappointing and horrify us. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern and specific, q&a on c-span. >> each week, american artifacts takes viewers into archives for museums and historic sites around the country. new, we visit the smithsonian national museum of african american history and culture. which stands on the national